American survivors of deadly Kuwait attack dispute Hegseth’s account: ‘Unprepared to provide any defense for itself’

American soldiers who survived a drone attack against a U.S. tactical operations center in Kuwait, which killed six service members, heavily dispute Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s narrative that one drone made its way through air defenses – claiming the center had little in the way of fortifications to begin with. Hegseth initially described the deadly March 1 attack as a “once-in-a-while” incident in which a “squiter” made its way through air defenses and struck the “fortified” operations center located in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait. “Painting a picture that 'one squeaked through' is a falsehood," one of the injured soldiers told CBS News. “I want people to know the unit…was unprepared to provide any defense for itself.”One soldier described the tactical operation center as “a bunch of little tin buildings where we can set up makeshift offices,” surrounded by barriers that were designed to absorb blasts from a rocket but offer no protection against aerial attacks."It's not my intent to diminish morale or to disparage the Army or the Department of War more holistically, but I do think that telling the truth is important and we're not going to learn from these mistakes if we pretend these mistakes didn't happen,” one of the soldiers told CBS News.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth portrayed the March 1 incident as an unfortunate moment in which a drone got through air defenses – however, survivors say there were no such defenses to begin with (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)The Pentagon declined to comment on the report, citing the ongoing investigation into the incident. The survivors described the harrowing moment the drone struck the tactical operations center, saying they felt shaking before waking up to a cloud of dust and smoke, and their ears began ringing. One service member described looking around at the scene and seeing “head wounds, heavy bleeding, lots of perforated eardrums,” and “shrapnel all over.”"It was chaos," one wounded soldier told CBS News. "There was no single line of patients to triage. You're on one side of the fire, or you're on the other side of the fire."Soldiers had to triage themselves with makeshift tourniquets and bandages before commandeering a civilian vehicle to drive to a local hospital.“One of the hardest things for me is that I know we didn't get everybody out, so I know that at this point there are still soldiers inside there that still haven't been identified and evacuated," one survivor told the broadcaster. Ultimately, six were killed and dozens of others were injured. The six American soldiers killed in the March 1 Kuwait drone strike were the first US service members to die since Trump launched his war with Iran (AP)The comments from the surviving soldiers echo similar reports that emerged shortly after the deadly attack, which accused U.S. military officials of stationing troops within Iranian missile range in a facility that had little to no protection against aerial attacks.Satellite imagery indicated the center was a trailer-style structure that lacked any substantial air capabilities and had little defense mechanisms beyond concrete T-walls.Joey Amor, the husband of Sgt 1st Class Nicole Amor, one of the deceased soldiers, compared the tactical operations center to a shipping container-style building with no defenses, while speaking with the Associated Press.Sean Parnell, the Pentagon spokesperson, denied the initial claim that the tactical operations center lacked defense capabilities, first reported by CBS News.“A Tactical Operations Center is not a ‘makeshift office space.’ The secure facility was fortified with 6-foot walls,” Parnell said in a March statement.